1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to apparatus for controlling the use of parking stalls or spaces in general and, in particular, to the control of individual parking spaces by reserving them for individual owners of the spaces or to charge a fee for use of individual spaces.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There have been a wide variety of devices for controlling uses of parking spaces. A plurality of parking spaces have been enclosed in a parking lot configuration, with entry to or exit from the parking lot controlled, usually by a coin collecting control operating device. Examples of such devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,581,788; 2,588,502 and 2,657,486, British Patent No. 1,339,892, and PCT/FR87/00432.
However, once inside the parking lot, a vehicle could be parked in any space that is empty. This is not always desirable, because certain spaces may be allocated to and in close proximity to certain businesses, condominium residences, and the like for the convenience of their employees, owners, etc.
Accordingly, there have been attempts to control the use of individual parking spaces by devices that permit free entry of a vehicle but require payment in order to leave the space. Examples of such devices are found in British Patents No. 1,022,817 and 1,436,234. However, these devices do not allow the reservation of the parking spaces for individual users.
The development of devices to permit reservation of individual parking spaces may be divided into two groups. First, there are those that use barriers that prevent entry by being tall enough to engage only the tires or wheels of the vehicles. Examples of tire barriers are found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,838,760 (FIG. 6) and in Australian Patent No. 256,033.
While barriers for car tires alone may be effective in some instances, they are difficult to see, e.g. in parking garages or unlighted parking lots. Even in good light, those with relatively poor vision and/or those who do not understand the system's operation may severely damage the parking control apparatus or their cars or both. The latter is particularly significant since there are other systems in which the tire barrier may be freely pushed down by the car tire when entering, but then will rise and lock to keep the car in the stall until a coin payment is made. Finally, there are areas where there is such a shortage of parking spaces that desperate drivers will jump or drive over tire barriers without regard to possible damage to the apparatus or their vehicles.
Therefore, larger and more visible barriers that can be seen above the hood of a vehicle and which appear to be capable of doing a substantial amount of damage to the auto body and radiator grill area serve a very important purpose. Examples of such auto body barriers for individual spaces, as opposed to parking lot entry control are found in U.S. Pat. 4,641,459 and French Patent No. 2,357,713.
However, larger and more visible auto body barriers may present unique problems in the design of such a system. It is desirable to have a basic system that could return both the auto body type barrier and the tire type barrier to an access blocking position from an entry permitting position, for maximum flexibility depending upon which type of barrier is desired in particular installations. The weight and bulk of an auto body barrier is more difficult to handle.
Thus, a manually operated device (U.S. Pat. No. 4,641,459); heavy duty electromagnetics requiring an expensive underground installation (French Patent No. 2,357,713); heavy duty spring, lever and hydraulics requiring an underground installation (U.S. Pat. No. 2,588,502); a manually operated barrier, again with a sub surface installation (PCT/FR87/00432); and the familiar pivoted and counter weighted barrier arm (may be too tall for some parking garage roofs) (British Patent No. 1,339,892), have been tried with the noted disadvantages.
In addition to resolving the above-noted problems, an ideal parking space reserving system would:
(1) move a barrier to an entry permitting position and reset the barrier automatically to an access blocking position without requiring the driver to get out of the vehicle or special driving skills,
(2) be installable on already existing parking spaces without requiring an expensive underground installation, and which would allow the owner to dismantle the system and take it with him.
(3) not require any external power supplies for operation, whether electric, hydraulics, pressurized air, or the like,
(4) be inexpensive to manufacture, assemble, install and maintain,
(5) have very simple mechanical controls and operation for greater reliability, which would also help attain the goal of item (4) above, and
(6) be flexible enough to operate both tire and auto-body type barriers.
None of the prior art devices meet all of the six goals set forth above, although some devices try to meet one or more of the above goals.
For example, Australian Patent No. 256,033, shows the use of a lever having a forward end connected to a tire barrier and a rear end which is cantilevered over a fulcrum, to raise the barrier when the vehicle leaves the space. The driver is required to drive into the space along the side of the lever. Then, when leaving the space, the driver must first turn the steering wheel so that one of the front tires will move out of the entry track toward and on top of the forward part of the lever. Then, as the vehicle backs out, the steering wheel must continually be adjusted to keep that front tire on top of the lever until it passes the fulcrum area. This requires considerable driving skill, because if that front tire falls off of the lever the barrier will not be reset.
Moreover, the Australian device requires a wider parking space. First, room must be provided for the addition of the lever system along the side of the space. Secondly, because the front tires must be turned before the vehicle can back out, the rear of the vehicle will immediately start to turn in the direction opposite to that in which the front tires are pointed. This will cause the front fender to swing wide in one direction while the rear of the vehicle will swing wide in the other direction, so the space must be wider to avoid contact with vehicles in adjoining parking spaces.
The apparatus in U.S. Pat. No. 2,657,486 is designed for drive-through control of entry into a parking lot, not for reservation control of a drive-in and back-out parking space. However, it does show a tire barrier operated by a tilting leaf which is responsive to successive tilts by wheels passing over it. This involves a complex and expensive mechanism which requires electrical power and is expensive to manufacture, assemble and maintain. Finally, the apparatus cannot be used with an auto-body type barrier because the apparatus raises the barrier beneath the car which, while acceptable for a short tire-type barrier, would not be acceptable for a taller auto-body type which couldn't raise to its upright position and/or would get hung up on the under-body of a vehicle.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an improved parking space control apparatus.
It is a further object of this invention to provide improved apparatus for reserving a parking space for use by authorized personnel which has all of the six sets of advantages listed hereinbefore.
Other objects, advantages and features of this invention will become apparent when the following description is taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.